Iran’s soccer stars quietly crossed into the US on Sunday, arriving in LA a day before its opening 2026 World Cup match as extraordinary security measures surrounded the squad’s hotel.
Exclusive photos obtained by the California Post show buses and vehicles emblazoned with Iranian flags and team insignia parked outside the squad’s pad, where barricades had been erected around the property as authorities prepared for possible demonstrations.
The team is staying at Westdrift Manhattan Beach, a four-star hotel roughly six miles from SoFi Stadium, where Iran will face New Zealand on Monday evening.
LA holds the largest Iranian diaspora in the world outside of Iran, with roughly 600,000 Persian-Americans living across the greater metropolitan area. Centered around the Westside, particularly Westwood Boulevard famously known as “Tehrangeles”.
Several demonstrators were spotted outside the hotel carrying American flags alongside the pre-revolutionary Iranian flag featuring the lion-and-sun emblem — a symbol adopted by many Iranian opposition groups and diaspora activists who reject the Islamic Republic.
Fans have mixed feelings ahead of the match today.
“Many of us find ourselves in a difficult paradox. On one hand, it is the national team of our homeland, and we genuinely love football and want to see Iranian players succeed,” one fan attending the game today told The Post.
“On the other hand, the team is officially represented by the Islamic Republic, which many Iranians do not feel represents them or all of Iran.”
“We love Iran and the sport, but at the same time we struggle to openly support a team that we believe does not fully represent the Iranian people,” he added.
The arrival comes amid intense political tensions surrounding Team Melli’s participation in the tournament.
Iran had initially planned to base itself in Tucson, Arizona, but was forced to relocate its training camp to Tijuana, Mexico, after the United States reportedly denied visas to several senior officials from the country’s football federation over alleged links to Iranian state institutions.
The team has since trained in Mexico and is only entering the U.S. for matches.
Several members of Iran’s delegation, including team manager Mehdi Mohammad Nabi and executive manager Mehdi Kharati, were reportedly still awaiting U.S. visas as recently as last week, prompting assistant coach and technical adviser Hooman Afazeli to travel ahead of the squad to oversee logistics in Los Angeles, WANA, an Iranian news cite reported.
The team’s appearance at the World Cup has also been overshadowed by the United States’ conflict with Iran.
When the squad landed in Tijuana earlier this month, players wore gold lapel pins bearing the number “168” — a tribute to the 168 people, mostly schoolgirls, killed in a missile strike on an elementary school in Minab, Iran, in February.
The symbol has become a fixture of the team’s recent public appearances.
Earlier this spring, players held pink and purple school backpacks during a pre-match ceremony in Turkey to honor the victims.
The deadly strike remains the subject of an ongoing U.S. military investigation.
Reuters previously reported that American forces were likely responsible for the attack due to outdated targeting information, according to two sources familiar with the probe.